Donald Trump returns to the 'Apprentice' boardroom


NEW YORK (AP) — There is something Donald Trump says he doesn't know.


Trump has welcomed a reporter to his 26th-floor corner office in Trump Tower to talk about "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice." And here in person, this one-of-a-kind TV star, billionaire businessman, ubiquitous brand mogul and media maestro strikes a softer pose than he has typically practiced in his decades on public display.


Relaxed behind a broad desk whose mirror sheen is mostly hidden by stacks of paper that suggest work is actually done there, Trump is pleasant, even chummy, with a my-time-is-your-time easiness greeting his guest.


He even contradicts his status as a legendary know-it-all with this surprising admission: There's a corner of the universe he doesn't understand.


The ratings woes of NBC, which airs his show, are on Trump's mind at the moment, and as he hastens to voice confidence in the network's powers-that-be ("They will absolutely get it right"), he marvels at the mysteries of the entertainment world.


"If I buy a great piece of real estate and do the right building, I'm really gonna have a success," he says. "It may be MORE successful or LESS successful, but you can sort of predict how it's gonna do. But show business is like trial and error! It's amazing!"


He loves to recall the iffy prospects for "The Apprentice" when it debuted in January 2004. With show biz, he declares, "You NEVER know what's gonna happen."


Except, of course, when you do.


"I do have an instinct," he confides. "Oftentimes, I'll see shows go on and I'll say, 'That show will never make it,' and I'm always right. And I understand talent. Does anybody ask me? No. But if they did, I would be doing them a big service. I know what people want."


So maybe he does know it all. In any case, lots of people wanted "The Apprentice." In its first season, it averaged nearly 21 million viewers each week.


And it gave Trump a signature TV platform that clinched his image as corporate royalty. He presided in a mood-lit stagecraft boardroom where celebrity subjects addressed him as "Mr. Trump" and shrank at that dismissive flick of his wrist and dreaded catchphrase, "You're fired."


The two-hour premiere of "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" (Sunday at 9 p.m. EST) starts by rallying its 14 veteran contenders in the even more evocative setting of the 2,000-year-old Egyptian Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


There, grandly, Trump receives such returning players as Gary Busey, Stephen Baldwin, LaToya Jackson and reality mean queen Omarosa.


Soon, teammates are chosen by team leaders Bret Michaels and Trace Adkins. Their first assignment: concoct a winning recipe for meatballs, then sell more of them than the rival team.


This is the 13th edition of the "Apprentice" franchise, which has now slipped to less than one-third its original viewership, according to Nielsen Co. figures. But even an audience matching last season's 6.26 million viewers would be pleasant news for NBC, which has recently fallen to fifth place in prime time, behind even Spanish-language Univision.


"I could probably do another show when I don't enjoy 'The Apprentice' anymore," says the 66-year-old Trump, mulling his TV future. "I have been asked by virtually every network on television to do a show for them. But there's something to sticking with what you have: This is a good formula. It works."


Years before "The Apprentice," Trump had hit on a winning formula for himself: Supercharge his business success with relentless self-promotion, putting a human face — his! — on the capitalist system, and embedding his persona in a feedback loop of performance and fame.


Since then, he has ruled as America's larger-than-life tycoon and its patron saint of material success. Which raises the question: Does he play a souped-up version of himself for his audience as Donald Trump, a character bigger and broader than its real-life inspiration?


He laughs, flashing something like a you-got-me smile.


"Perhaps," he replies. "Not consciously. But perhaps I do. Perhaps I do."


It began as early as 1987, when his first book, "Trump: The Art of the Deal," became a huge best-seller.


And even without a regular showcase, he was no stranger to TV. For instance, in the span of just 10 days in May 1997, Trump not only was seen on his "Miss Universe Pageant" telecast on CBS, but also made sitcom cameo appearances as himself on NBC's "Suddenly Susan" and ABC's "Drew Carey Show."


Meanwhile, as a frequent talk-show guest then (as now), he publicized his projects and pushed his brand.


"I'll be on that show for 20 or 30 or 60 minutes, and it costs me nothing," he notes. "When you have an opportunity for promotion, take it! It's free."


No one has ever accused Trump of hiding his light under a bushel. But his promotional drive (or naked craving for attention) has taken him to extremes that conventional wisdom warns against: saying and doing things that might hurt your bottom line.


Item: Trump's noisy, even race-baiting challenge to President Barack Obama to prove his American citizenship. This crusade has earned Trump the title from one editorialist as "birther blowhard."


For an industrialist and entertainer, where's the profit in voicing political views that could tick off a segment of your market or your audience?


"It's a great question, and a hard question to answer, because you happen to be right," Trump begins. "The fact is, some people love me, and some people the-opposite-of-love me, because of what I do and because of what I say. But I'm a very truthful person. By speaking out, it's probably not a good thing for me personally, but I feel I have an obligation to do it."


But isn't he being divisive with some of his pronouncements?


"I think 'divisive' would be a fair word in some cases, not in all cases," he replies. "But I think 'truthful' is another word."


The publicity he got from his political activism reached a fever pitch during his months-long, media-blitzed flirtation with running for president that seemed conveniently to dovetail with the Spring 2011 season of his TV show.


That May, he announced he would not run. For some, it was the final scene of nothing more than political theatrics.


"They weren't," Trump says quietly. "I was very seriously considering running. It was a race that the Republicans should have won. I made a mistake in not running, because I think I would have won."


He says he has no designs on this year's race for mayor of New York. But his politicizing continues apace. In his Twitter feed, with 2 million followers, he continues to bash China and rant about Washington. He phones in to Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" each Monday morning to vent his spleen.


"I believe in speaking my mind," he says, "and I don't mind controversy, as you probably noticed. I think sometimes controversy is a good thing, not a bad thing."


Last summer saw the opening in Aberdeen, Scotland, of Trump International Golf Links after a bitter, yearslong fight waged by environmentalists and local residents against government leaders and, of course, Trump.


A man for whom it seems no publicity is bad publicity, Trump insists the controversy helped the project.


"If there wasn't controversy surrounding it, I don't think anybody would even know it exists," he says, laying out the alternative: "I could take an ad: 'Golf course opening.'"


Trump even seems to profit from the harsh attention focused on his hair.


"I get killed on my hair!" he says, with no trace of remorse. But he wants everyone to know, "It's not a wig!" Nor is it an elaborately engineered coif to hide a hairline in retreat, as many Trump-watchers imagine.


To prove it, Trump does a remarkable thing: He lifts the flaxen locks that flop above his forehead to reveal, plain as day, a normal hairline.


"I wash my hair, I comb it, I set it and I spray it," he says. "That's it. I could comb it back and I'd look OK. But I've combed it this way for my whole life. It's become almost a trademark. And I think NBC would be very unhappy if I combed it back, 'cause — you know what? — maybe I wouldn't get as high a rating."


___


Online:


www.nbc.com


___


Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier


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Economic expansion weakest since 2011









The U.S. economy barely grew in the fourth quarter although a slightly better performance in exports and fewer imports led the government to scratch an earlier estimate that showed an economic contraction.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 0.1 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, missing the 0.5 percent gain forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

The growth rate was the slowest since the first quarter of 2011 and far from what is needed to fuel a faster drop in the unemployment rate.

However, much of the weakness came from a slowdown in inventory accumulation and a sharp drop in military spending. These factors are expected to reverse in the first quarter.

Consumer spending was more robust by comparison, although it only expanded at a 2.1 percent annual rate.

Because household spending powers about 70 percent of national output, this still-lackluster pace of growth suggests underlying momentum in the economy was quite modest as it entered the first quarter, when significant fiscal tightening began.

Initially, the government had estimated the economy shrank at a 0.1 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2012. That had shocked economists.

Thursday's report showed the reasons for the decline were mostly as initially estimated. Inventories subtracted 1.55 percentage points from the GDP growth rate during the period, a little more of a drag than initially estimated. Defense spending plunged 22 percent, shaving 1.28 points off growth as in the previous estimate.

There were some relatively bright spots, however. Imports fell 4.5 percent during the period, which added to the overall growth rate because it was a larger drop than in the third quarter. Buying goods from foreigners bleeds money from the economy, subtracting from economic growth.

Also helping reverse the initial view of an economic contraction, exports did not fall as much during the period as the government had thought when it released its advance GDP estimate in January. Exports have been hampered by a recession in Europe, a cooling Chinese economy and storm-related port disruptions.

Excluding the volatile inventories component, GDP rose at a revised 1.7 percent rate, in line with expectations. These final sales of goods and services had been previously estimated to have increased at a 1.1 percent pace.

Business spending was revised to show more growth during the period than initially thought, adding about a percentage point to the growth rate.

Growth in home building was revised slightly higher to show a 17.5 percent annual rate. Residential construction is one of the brighter spots in the economy and is benefiting from the Federal Reserve's ultra easy monetary policy stance, which has driven mortgage rates to record lows. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
 

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Chicago archdiocese to close or consolidate five schools









The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago is laying off about 10 percent of its work force and is planning to close or consolidate about five schools to reverse "unsustainable" deficits.

The downsizing, which apparently has been in the works for months, coincides with the arrival of Cardinal Francis George in Rome this week to participate in the conclave to choose a new pope.


In a lengthy letter to parishioners posted on the archdiocese website, George outlines cost-cutting measures for the archdiocese, which has been running operating deficits of more than $30 million every year for the past four years.


"Since this trend is unsustainable, I want to set out the measures we are taking to ensure prudent stewardship of our resources for years to come," George says in the letter.








At the Pastoral Center, 75 positions have been cut, including 55 full-time roles. That reduction is estimated to save $11 million to $13 million annually by fiscal year 2015, according to George.

“Our employees are faith-filled men and women who have worked tirelessly for the good of the Church.  Please keep them in your prayers,” he wrote.


George wrote in his Cardinal’s Column that other cost-cutting measures would include closing or consolidating “a few schools that are no longer sustainable.”

About five schools will be closed or consolidated, some of which have seen demographic changes or other challenges, according to the letter. The archdiocese plans to give out scholarships to children affected by the change so they can attend nearby Catholic schools.

The archdiocese will also reduce its annual aid to schools by $10 million next year. “We hope to return to a sustainable level of aid for those schools that will always be facing financial difficulties,” George wrote.

In addition, pastors received letters in the past month informing them there would be no more loans granted from the archdiocese bank.

No parish priests will lose their assignments in the downsizing, the Tribune has learned. But administrative staff at the pastoral center could be cut.

Earlier this year, the school system rolled out a strategic plan to make schools more self-sufficient.


"This review of archdiocesan finances has been necessary but difficult," the cardinal concludes in his letter. "Reductions in some services and in staffing will, of course, be particularly difficult for the persons and parishes directly affected by them.  These actions are being taken now because the financial situation imposes them.  We are also taking them, however, so that the archdiocese will have the resources she needs for her mission."


mbrachear@tribune.com





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Apple CEO says he feels shareholders' pain, urges long view


CUPERTINO, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook acknowledged on Wednesday that his shareholders were disappointed with a five-month slide of more than 30 percent in the company's share price, but urged a focus on the longer term.


The world's most valuable technology corporation headed into its annual meeting at its Cupertino headquarters on shakier ground than it has been accustomed to in years, since the iPhone and iPad helped elevate the company to premier investment status.


Its southward-heading share price has lent weight to Wall Street's demand that it share more of its $137 billion cash and securities pile, a debate now spearheaded by outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn.


Einhorn was not spotted at the meeting on Wednesday. Cook repeated that the company's board remained in "very very active" discussions about options for cash sharing.


"I don't like it either. The board doesn't like it. The management team doesn't like it," Cook told investors at the company's headquarters on 1 Infinite Loop.


But by focusing on the long term, revenue and profit will follow, he said.


Cook added that the company was working on new product categories, but, as usual, would not elaborate.


Speculation is rife on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley that the iPhone maker is working on a project to revolutionize the television and TV content, or a smart "iWatch."


Apple's stock was down 1.2 percent to $443.60 in early afternoon trade. It is now down more than 35 percent from its $702.10 September peak.


Despite a slip-sliding share price, dissatisfaction on the Street over its cash allocation strategy and uncertainty over its product pipeline, shareholders re-elected the entire board on Wednesday, and Cook won more than 99 percent of the vote in preliminary results.


(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tim Dobbyn)



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Pistorius representatives name substance found


JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Oscar Pistorius' representatives have named the substance found in his bedroom after the shooting death of his girlfriend as Testis compositum and said Wednesday it is an herbal remedy used "in aid of muscle recovery."


A product called Testis compositum is also marketed as a sexual enhancer, good for lack of stamina. Some online retailers advertise oral and injectable forms as testosterone boosters and say it can aid sexual performance.


South African police said during Pistorius' bail hearing that they found needles in Pistorius' bedroom along with the substance, which they initially named as testosterone. Prosecutors later withdrew that statement identifying the substance and said it had been sent for laboratory tests and couldn't be named until those tests were completed.


Pistorius family spokesperson Lunice Johnston said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the athlete's lawyers had confirmed that the substance is Testis compositum. In court last week, Pistorius' defense lawyer Barry Roux said the substance was not banned by sports authorities, but it had been unclear what it was and what the exact name was.


A product called Testis Compositum is made by Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH, based in Baden-Baden, Germany. The company website says it is one of the world's leading makers of homeopathic combination medications.


A U.S. subsidiary, Heel USA Inc., markets the product in tablet form only and spokeswoman Joan Sullivan said she didn't know if injectable versions are sold in other countries. Heel USA's website says the product provides temporary relief for men's "sexual weakness" and lack of stamina.


The U.S.-sold tablets contain 23 ingredients, including pig testicles, pig heart, pig embryo and pig adrenal gland, cortisone, ginseng and other botanicals. It also contains several minerals, according to a list Sullivan provided.


Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor emeritus and expert on steroid use in sports, said animal steroids likely wouldn't have an athletic performance-enhancing effect unless taken in huge quantities. Even so, he said many elite athletes would be wary of using such supplements because they can be laced with banned substances and few would want to risk it.


The company website listed a South African subsidiary as ModHomCo (Pty) Ltd., based in Centurion, near Pretoria. That company couldn't immediately be reached for comment.


Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He says he shot her by accident after mistaking her for an intruder in his home. Prosecutors allege he intended to kill her.


___


AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.


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Vt. lye victim gets new face at Boston hospital


BOSTON (AP) — A Vermont nurse disfigured in a 2007 lye attack has received a new face at a Boston hospital.


Carmen Blandin Tarleton's full facial transplant at Brigham & Women's Hospital included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.


Hospital officials say the 44-year-old Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body after her estranged husband attacked her.


Tarleton's sister said Wednesday she showed "great appreciation" for the gift she's been given.


The donor's family believes their loved one's spirit lives on in Tarleton.


Tarleton has undergone more than 50 surgeries. The latest took 15 hours and included a team of more than 30 medical professionals.


Tarleton once worked as a transplant nurse.


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Van Cliburn, American classical pianist, dies


FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Van Cliburn, the internationally celebrated pianist whose triumph at a 1958 Moscow competition helped thaw the Cold War and launched a spectacular career that made him the rare classical musician to enjoy rock-star status, died Wednesday after a fight with bone cancer. He was 78.


Cliburn died at his home in Fort Worth surrounded by loved ones, said his publicist and longtime friend Mary Lou Falcone.


"Van Cliburn was an international legend for over five decades, a great humanitarian and a brilliant musician whose light will continue to shine through his extraordinary legacy," Falcone said in a statement. "He will be missed by all who knew and admired him, and by countless people he never met."


Cliburn made what would be his last public appearance in September at the 50th anniversary of the prestigious piano competition named for him. Speaking to the audience in Fort Worth, he saluted the many past contestants, the orchestra and the city. "Never forget: I love you all from the bottom of my heart, forever," he said to a roaring standing ovation.


Cliburn skyrocketed to fame when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at age 23 in 1958, six months after the Soviets' launch of Sputnik embarrassed the U.S. and propelled the world into the space age. He triumphantly returned to a New York City ticker tape parade — the first ever for a classical musician — and a Time magazine cover proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia."


But the win also proved the power of the arts, bringing unity in the midst of strong rivalry. Despite the tension between the nations, Cliburn became a hero to music-loving Soviets who clamored to see him perform and Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly gave the go-ahead for the judges to honor a foreigner: "Is Cliburn the best? Then give him first prize."


In the years that followed, Cliburn's popularity soared, and the young man from the small east Texas town of Kilgore sold out concerts, caused riots when spotted in public and even prompted an Elvis Presley fan club to change its name to his. His recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Russian conductor Kirill Kondrashin became the first classical album to reach platinum status.


Time magazine's 1958 cover story quoted a friend as saying Cliburn could become "the first man in history to be a Horowitz, Liberace and Presley all rolled into one."


Cliburn performed for royalty, heads of state in Europe, Asia and South America, and for every U.S. president since Harry Truman.


"Since we know that classical music is timeless and everlasting, it is precisely the eternal verities inherent in classical music that remain a spiritual beacon for people all over the world," Cliburn once said.


But he also used his skill and fame to help other young musicians through the Van Cliburn International Music Competition.


Created by a group of Fort Worth teachers and citizens in 1962, the competition, held every four years, remains a pre-eminent showcase for the world's top pianists. An amateur contest was added in 1999.


"It is a forum for young artists to celebrate the great works of the piano literature and an opportunity to expose their talents to a wide-ranging international audience," Cliburn said during the 10th competition in 1997. The 14th competition is to be held in May and June.


President George W. Bush presented Cliburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation's highest civilian honor — in 2003. In 2004, he received the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.


"I still have lots of friends in Russia," Cliburn said at the time. "It's always a great pleasure to talk to older people in Russia, to hear their anecdotes."


After the death of his father in 1974, Cliburn announced he would soon retire to spend more time with his ailing mother. He stopped touring in 1978.


He told The New York Times in 2008 that among other things, touring robbed him of the chance to enjoy opera and other musical performances. "I said to myself, 'Life is too short.' I was missing so much," he said. After winning the competition, he added, "it was thrilling to be wanted. But it was pressure too."


Cliburn emerged from his sabbatical in 1987, when he played at a state dinner at the White House during the historic visit to Washington of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev leapt from his seat to give the pianist a bear-hug and kisses on the cheeks.


The 13th Cliburn competition, held in 2009, made history when a blind pianist from Japan, Nobuyuki Tsujii, and a teenager from China, Haochen Zhang, both won gold medals. They were the first winners from any Asian country, and Tsujii was the first blind pianist to win. And it was only the second time there were dual first place winners.


Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, La., the son of oilman Harvey Cliburn Sr. and Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn. At age 3, he began studying piano with his mother, herself an accomplished pianist who had studied with a pupil of the great 19th century Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt.


The family moved back to Kilgore, Texas, within a few years of his birth.


Cliburn won his first Texas competition when he was 12, and two years later he played in Carnegie Hall as the winner of the National Music Festival Award.


At 17, Cliburn attended the Juilliard School in New York, where fellow students marveled at his marathon practice sessions that stretched until 3 a.m. He studied under the famed Russian-born pianist Rosina Lhevinne.


Between 1952 and 1958, he won all but one competition he entered, including the G.B. Dealey Award from the Dallas Symphony, the Kosciusko Foundation Chopin Scholarship and the prestigious Leventritt. By age 20, he had played with the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of most major cities.


Cliburn's career seemed ready to take off until his name came up for the draft. Cliburn had to cancel all shows but was eventually excused from duty due to chronic nosebleeds.


Over the next few years, Cliburn's international popularity continued as he recorded pieces ranging from Mozart to a concerto by American Edward McDowell. Still, having been trained by arguably the best Russian teachers in the world, Cliburn's heart was Russian, with the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concertos.


After 1990, Cliburn toured Japan numerous times and performed throughout the United States. He was in the midst of a 16-city U.S. tour in 1994 when his mother died at age 97.


Cliburn made his home in Fort Worth, where in 1998 he appeared at the opening of the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, both in recital and as soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He endowed scholarships at many schools, including Juilliard, which gave him an honorary doctorate, and the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories.


In December 2001, Cliburn was presented with the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Medallion at the televised tribute held in Washington.


Until only recently, Cliburn practiced daily and performed limited engagements.


___


Online:


Van Cliburn Foundation: http://www.cliburn.org


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Author tells businesses to be like Mike


























































An author of a new book has some sage advice for business leaders: Be more like Michael Jordan.

Bruce Piasecki, who penned "Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning," says Michael Jordan's long and storied career "is a shining example of how the best teams operate."






Jordan shouldn't be emulated just because of the Bulls star's individual success, the author says, but by the way he showed leadership and helped create a seemingly unstoppable team, meshing with different personalities such as the quiet Scottie Pippen and outrageous Dennis Rodman to create a basketball dynasty.

Those team dynamics are similar in the business world, the author says. And businesses are most successful when they are led by the right leaders and are composed of a mix of people with varying talents, he argues.

Jordan also is held up as an example in other tenets of good business teamwork the author describes.

-- Ego and individual goals have no place on teams.

"When we pin all our hopes on a single individual and ignore the context in which he or she operates, we will be disappointed," he says.

--  Failure is part of winning.

"Leaders must instill in teams a tolerance of losing," he said. "We must convey that failure is a part of life and thus a part of business."

Jordan, who helped the Chicago Bulls win six NBA championships, famously said "I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed."

The book is set to be released next month but is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.




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Chicago pelted by snow, sleet









A winter weather advisory has been issued for today as the Chicago area is getting hit with sleet, freezing rain and snow from a storm that churned the southern Plains a day earlier.


The National Weather Service expects snow  to fall the heaviest between mid-day and early afternoon, though accumulations will vary in different parts the city.


"It does look like the early part of the rush hour will be most affected," said Mike Bardou, a Romeoville-based meteorologist for The National Weather Service.








The northern part of the city and the northwest suburbs could see 2 to 3 inches of snow by the evening rush hour, he said.


During a similar time frame, Chicago's South Side and southwest suburbs like Oak Lawn, Tinley Park and Joliet might only get 1 to 2 inches of snow, according to the agency. The far south suburbs could see less than an inch.


Snow will continue to fall, though at a lighter intensity, through the evening until early tomorrow morning, according to the agency, and temperatures are expected to hover right around freezing.


So far, the early mixture of rain, sleetr and snow has resulted in non-serious accidents on Interstate 90, I-94 and I-55, according to the Illinois State Police.


The threat of heavy weather has already prompted a large number of schools to cancel after-school activities, according to the Emergency Closing Center on ChicagoWeatherCenter.com, and many are even closing early.

The weather has also thrown a monkey wrench into scheduling of early-round games in the boys state basketball tournaments. Many games downstate have been postponed for a day and in the Chicago area, games at Chicago's St. Ignatius College Prep and at South Elgin High School have  been postponed as well.


The storm bore down on the southern Plains on Monday, dumping more than a foot of snow and creating blizzard conditions in Oklahoma, Texas and parts of Kansas still digging out from a winter storm last week.


Highways in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and parts of Kansas were closed by the heavy and drifting snow that cut visibility and forced flight cancellations at airports across the region.


A man was killed Monday when his car slid off Interstate 70 in Sherman County, Kansas, near the western border, Governor Sam Brownback said. And in northern Oklahoma, one person died when the roof of a home partially collapsed in the city of Woodward, said Matt Lehenbauer, the city's emergency management director.


"We have roofs collapsing all over town," said Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill Jr. "We really have a mess on our hands."


The storm was slowly moving out of Texas on Monday, while residents of Kansas City in turn were preparing for a foot or more of snow into Tuesday.


Tornado watches were in place Monday evening in parts of Mississippi and heavy rain was expected through the night in parts of Alabama and Georgia, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service Monday also issued flood watches for parts of the Carolinas and an ice storm warning for portions of West Virginia.


Some 17 inches of snow fell near Amarillo, Texas, according to the National Weather Service. Other areas in the Texas Panhandle reported more than a foot of snow and Texas Governor Rick Perry activated Texas military forces to be ready to respond to calls for assistance.


Amarillo could break the all-time record for the amount of snow in one day of just over 18 inches set in 1934, said Kristin Scotten of the National Weather Service.


Airports in Amarillo and in Lubbock, Texas, were closed and Interstate 27 between the cities was shut because of blowing snow, state officials said. Wind gusts of 75 miles per hour (121 km per hour) were clocked at the Amarillo airport.


Visibility was near zero on some roads around Amarillo, said Paul Braun, a Texas Department of Transportation spokesman.


"I am hearing that we have a lot of vehicles that are stalled in the main lanes of our roadways and they can't be seen because of the blowing snow," Braun said.


Texas State Trooper Gabriel Medrano said the snow was too deep to measure in Lubbock.





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Marlins owner says he didn't renege on promises


JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — A cluster of media stood outside the Miami Marlins clubhouse, awaiting the arrival of owner Jeffrey Loria, when outfielder Bryan Petersen walked past.


"Somebody getting married?" Petersen said.


It was more like somebody trying to salvage a relationship. Loria's three-day public relations campaign to patch things up with angry fans brought him to spring training Tuesday for an interview session that included several testy exchanges before the owner cut it short.


Loria reiterated many of his previous comments regarding the 2012 payroll purge, saying it wasn't about money but about improving the farm system. Ten minutes into the news conference, he bristled when asked why fans should believe him.


"You've said that question in four different ways," Loria said. "My response to you is we have put together some championship-caliber players. We're going to field an excellent team in the next two or three years that you're going to be proud of."


Fans are upset that after only one season of big spending in a new ballpark built mostly with tax money, the Marlins have reverted to their tight budgets of the past. Loria was asked about trying to change the impression the ballpark project was "a con job."


"A con job? I'm not even going to answer that," Loria said.


Many project the Marlins to lose 100 games only a year after they were the talk of baseball and touted as playoff contenders. This year's payroll is expected to be less than $45 million, compared with $90 million in 2012.


Loria denied he reneged on any promise, noting the Marlins finished last in the NL East with their biggest payroll ever.


"I fulfilled my promise in the new ballpark last year," he said. "It didn't work. So what do you do? Go back again and lose more games? We needed to do something to beef up the organization."


A blockbuster trade in November sent to Toronto three of the Marlins' highest-paid players — shortstop Jose Reyes and pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson. In exchange Miami acquired mostly prospects.


"We have some very exciting young players here," Loria said. "We need to bring them along and develop our own stars, or else we're going to be a last-place team forever."


As he stepped away from the TV cameras after 15 minutes, a PR aide said the owner would take more questions. Instead, Loria disappeared through a clubhouse door and didn't return.


At some point the team's play will have to speak for itself.


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